Born in Cologne, he originally wanted to become a physicist, left school with qualifications entitling him to apply to university at the age of 16 and then, to everyone's surprise, discovered the hotel industry. Instead of studying natural sciences, he decided to train as a hotel manager at the prestigious "Excelsior Hotel Ernst" in Cologne with the aim of learning the profession of hotel manager. During this time, the then 18-year-old first came into contact with wine and spirits. The question why he likes certain grape varieties and not others was to ultimately determine his professional career. This was followed by positions in the food & beverage sector in luxury hotels throughout Germany. It was a formative period during which Almert finally decided to become a sommelier and discovered his passion for hosting in restaurants. He learned the basics for the former at the "Restaurant Ente" in Wiesbaden from the then head sommelier, whom he now calls one of his great mentors. In 2014 he moved to the "Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten" in Hamburg, where he started his first permanent job as a sommelier at the age of 22.
Since January 2017, he has been working as a sommelier for the two-star "Pavillon" restaurant at the traditional Zurich hotel "Baur au Lac" and practices the profession with passion, humility and a constant curiosity for new things. He describes the latter as one of the most important characteristics for successfully practising this profession. His pronounced affinity for cultural and historical topics as well as his high degree of discipline are further attributes that contribute to Almert's professional success. He likes to describe himself as a "pleasure manager", because in addition to his main area of wine, he also has a well established knowledge of beer, coffee, tea, sake, cigars and all kinds of spirits.
Marc Almert has participated in numerous competitions during his career, all of which he has completed successfully. But the greatest success in his still young career is winning the "ASI Best Sommelier of the World 2019" in Antwerp, Belgium. A year earlier he had already secured the award for "Best Sommelier in Germany". Today he regularly passes his knowledge on in seminars and hosted wine tastings. He is also intensively involved with the Sommelier Union Deutschland, which has supported him massively over the years with various further training courses and above all with preparations for competitions.
In his private life, the German includes travelling, reading, theatre and ballroom dancing among his great passions.
